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Flying medical helicopter highly dangerous
By Sue Mueller
Jul 1, 2008 - 1:48:13 PM

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TUESDAY July 1, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) -- The crash of two medical helicopters on Sunday in Arizona due to a collision was the six since May involving the emergency copters, making the last two months one of the deadliest ever in the history of transportation by medical helicopters, the New York times reports.

Sixteen people have died this year in a total of seven crashes involving eight helicopters and thirteen people died in the past two months, according to federal data.

In the United States, about 750 medical helicopters are now being used to respond to emergency calls, mostly operated by hospitals in the past, but also by private companies recently.

The high risk of flying medical helicopters has prompted the National Transportation Safety Board to propose stricter flight rules and improved accident-avoidance equipment and other measures to enhance the safety of the unique transformation tool.

But the Federal Aviation Administration did not seem to act quickly enough to accept all of the board’s recommendations. And it has so far only put some of them into effect.

A 2006 report found the medical helicopter pilots had failed to developed comprehensive flight risk programs and that they often did not have adequate knowledge on bad weather that may endanger their flights or equipment to alert them to dangerous terrain, according to the times.